IGNOU to start UID enrolment for students and residents

As a part of Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI's) association with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), all students, alumni and residents would be invited to get enrolled for Aadhaar. The process of enrolment would tentatively begin in the month of September this year,” said Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU, while finalising the preparations along with all the regional directors of the university in a meeting.

IGNOU plans to link the UID number (Aadhaar) scheme to its student universe after creating a centralized database where all the students' information would be collated hence, simplifying to make the student identification process and service delivery more efficient. The University for this purpose has appointed Ernst & Young (EY) as the program management consultant where IGNOU will act as a registrar.

The role of the regional centers of IGNOU is to ensure that all the students and alumni are informed about the enrolment schedule. The regional centers will also provide dedicated space for setting up the enrolment centers within their premises, facilitate the set-up of enrolment centers by the selected enrolment agency, participate in the presentation of a work plan for enrolment by the EA and ensure that general residents (outside the IGNOU's student group) who walk in for enrolment are offered the enrolment facilities.

With the implementation of Aadhaar, IGNOU will be able to authenticate student and his/her records which can help reduce frauds and duplication through improved verification process. Aadhaar can be very effectively used for macro level integration of IGNOU's student information with other universities, national skill repositories, etc. It offers the potential for improvement in the internal process of the university throughout the student life cycle. For example, it can be used for identification of target population to offer new courses by IGNOU related to skill development, etc.

IGNOU will select a third party Enrolment Agency (EA) through a tendering process. UIDAI has empanelled agencies to help the registrars to carry out the enrollment. The university will provide space with normal electricity connection for enrolment centers at the respective locations. However, all the infrastructure requirements would be the responsibility of EA.

The publicity of the enrolment activities will be done by the university while the EA will conduct enrolment of students and other residents at these centers and will also set-up mobile camp stations at specific locations (study centers) for the students.

For residents, the enrolment procedure will begin with the residents visiting the enrolment center at locations provisioned by IGNOU. The EA on-boarded by IGNOU will capture the resident details and will transfer the data to UIDAI. The authority will then generate or reject Aadhaar and communicate the development in this regard back to the residents.

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